Wilmington, Delaware, USA
August 1, 2012
- Fundamental errors deprived jury of important information
- Damages award unjustified
DuPont strongly disagrees with the verdict that was reached in favor of Monsanto in Monsanto’s patent case against Du Pont in the United States District Court in St. Louis, Missouri. There were several fundamental errors in the case which deprived the jury of important facts and arguments and led to the disappointing outcome. DuPont will appeal at the earliest possible opportunity and expects to overturn this verdict.
“DuPont believes that the evidence presented during the trial demonstrated clearly that Monsanto’s Roundup Ready® soybean patent (RE 39,247) is invalid and unenforceable and that Monsanto intentionally deceived the United States Patent and Trademark Office on several occasions as it sought patent protection. Further, DuPont believes that the damages awarded of $1 billion are unjustified, particularly considering that Pioneer has never sold a single Optimum® GAT® seed and has no plans to do so in the future. DuPont’s license to sell Roundup Ready® soybeans remains in place and is not impacted by this verdict,” said DuPont Senior Vice President and General Counsel Thomas L. Sager.
Several aspects of Monsanto’s misconduct involving this patent, which were not tried in this case, will be presented to a different jury as part of DuPont’s antitrust and patent misuse case against Monsanto in September 2013.
“DuPont is and always has been committed to innovation and providing farmers with diverse technology options. We continue to stand by our position that we did not infringe the Roundup Ready® soybean patent and that the Monsanto patent is invalid. DuPont will continue to fight hard to ensure American farmers have choices and that no one company decides what is best for them,” concluded Sager.
DuPont has been working to deliver innovation to the agricultural marketplace for decades, to provide farmers with diverse technology options that can best satisfy their specific needs to help feed a growing world population by ensuring global food security.
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